Chipotle Tortilla Soup
Chipotle Tortilla Soup is simple to make, easy to customize, and bursting with smokey chipotle flavor. It’s a family favorite that is made year round, even in the hot summer months, because we can’t go with out it. It is by far the BEST tortilla soup! You have to try it out. I absolutely promise you won’t regret it!
A good 15 years or so ago Kristy took us siblings to this small hole in the wall house, Mexican restaurant in Cedar City, Utah, called Lupita’s. I love tortilla soup so I ordered some. I have to say it was the best tortilla soup I had ever had. There was something different about it that made it better than all the others I’d tried. After that initial visit anytime we’d visit Kristy we had to go to Lupita’s and I always ordered the tortilla soup.
On one of the visits I found something, food wise, in my tortilla soup. I wasn’t sure what it was but I knew it’s what made the soup taste so amazing! I asked the waitress what it was and she said it was a chipotle pepper.
This was before the whole chipotle crazy hit so I had never heard of one before. I was still living in Los Angles at the time so I was able to find canned chipotles at the store. Of course you can find them anywhere you look now but back then you couldn’t.
I immediately went to work creating a tortilla soup recipe that incorporated chipotles. It has been a hit with my family since day one and pretty much anyone we make it for. My seven your old can eat bowl after bowl of this stuff. I should say drink bowl after bowl because about half way through eating he usually picks up the bowl and drinks it.
Now I can make my favorite soup at home instead of eating out at a restaurant. Since Kristy no longer lives in the Cedar City area I never get to order tortilla soup from Lupita’s any more. I’m so glad I can make it at home. Lupita’s also isn’t a hole in the wall place anymore incase you live in the area and were wondering what the heck I was talking about. They have a much larger restaurant now which should tell you how good their food is.
Chipotle Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes Regular or fire roasted work.
- 1 medium yello onion quartered
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 4 tbsp fresh cilantro This doesn’t need to be exact. Just rip off what looks like 4 tbsp.
- 1-3 chipotle peppers in adobo 1 for mild, 2 for medium, 3 for high heat
- 1 tbsp adobo
- 8 cups broth I use chicken broth but vegi broth can be used to make the dish vegetarian/vegan
Add-ons
- shredded cheese
- chopped avacado
- crushed chips
- fresh squeezed lime The top 4 are our favorites. Everything else is great too but not necessary.
- shredded chicken
- sour cream
- white rice It’s great to throw in if you have leftovers.
- black beans
- corn I would never do this but people seem to like corn in tortilla soup. If you like it then throw it in.
Instructions
- Start by bringing your chicken broth to a boil.
- While it’s coming to a boil, throw the tomatoes, chipotle adobo sauce, onion, garlic and cilantro in a blender and blend until smooth. You can add one of the chipotle peppers in the blender too. That’s what I do but if you want your soup mild don’t throw it in.
- Once your broth has started to boil, carefully pour the tomato mix from the blender into the broth.
- Mix to combine and drop in your chipotle pepper/s.
- Once the soup is back up to a boil lower the heat and simmer for 20 mins.
- Add in anything you want from the add-ins, that needs to heat through, during the last couple minutes of cooking.
- Serve in bowls and throw on your favorite toppings.
